In some prior art systems, installing and configuring desirable features of a software product is complex and requires a significant length of time. In such systems, customizing an operating system and its installed applications can only be done by running that operating system and performing actions while in that context. Such online system manipulation actions include installing or uninstalling applications, customizing settings such as desktop wallpaper, or adding a new user. Booting into the operating system to make these changes is a time consuming process and requires validation of those changes thereby delaying deployment of the operating system. In addition, updating files or system settings for software that is actively executing may result in the software becoming inconsistent or unstable. Further, reboots may be required between updates.
In addition, the prior art systems fail to support scenarios in which an operating system requires certain changes prior to booting. For example, the operating system may require a certain device driver. In such cases, the prior art systems perform the changes after the operating system boots.
For these reasons, a system for offline system manipulation is desired to address one or more of these and other disadvantages.